Landmark Escondido winery up for sale

Family business launched 80 years ago

Gasper Ferrara Jr., the third-generation owner of Ferrara Winery in Escondido, checks grapes at the nearly 80-year-old business, which he and his mother have decided to sell. The winery is a state and local historical site.
— Eduardo Contreras

Gasper Ferrara Jr., the third-generation owner of Ferrara Winery in Escondido, checks grapes at the nearly 80-year-old business, which he and his mother have decided to sell. The winery is a state and local historical site.
— Eduardo Contreras

Citrus and avocado became more favorable, and areas like Escondido and El Cajon grew urbanized, he said.

Before Prohibition took effect in 1920, the county had 40 wineries, said Ross Rizzo Jr., a third-generation Rancho Bernardo winemaker and owner of Bernardo Winery.

After Prohibition, there were two wineries in the county — Bernardo and Ferrara, said Rizzo, who added that his family and the Ferraras were close for years. “It’s painful to see a peer go, especially one that is historical,” he said.

Although the acreage of wine grapes has diminished, wineries have flourished, with upward of 50 in the county now.

Ferrara still works every day on the now roughly 3-acre property, where the vines of muscat grapes take up less than one-third of that. If he’s not harvesting, crushing or bottling, he can be found greeting visitors with his mother in the small tasting room where bottles of juice and wine line the walls.

“I hate leaving it. … It’s always been a spiritual business for me,” he said. “It’s really in my heart.”